Millions of Americans are skipping doctor visits, rationing medication, and choosing between groceries and insurance premiums. Congresswoman Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) says that's not acceptable, and she convened lawmakers and experts this week to prove it.
Ansari, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus's Lowering Costs Task Force, hosted the group's second shadow hearing, bringing together lawmakers, policy experts, and advocates to discuss concrete ways to lower healthcare costs.
The Patients Over Profits: Lowering Healthcare Costs for All Americans hearing covered a range of proposals, from expanding Medicare's ability to negotiate prescription drug prices to reining in what participants described as corporate profiteering in the insurance and hospital industries.
The hearing featured a range of outside voices, with one policy expert testifying that expanding Medicare's drug price negotiation powers to cover all medications, with no delays and applied to the private market, could save the country roughly $200 billion every year.
Advocates Fight
Another advocate highlighted the staggering cost of home care for seniors and disabled Americans, which can reach $68,000 a year or more, arguing that recent Medicaid cuts shifted those costs onto emergency rooms, states, and family caregivers rather than actually saving money.
Additionally, a representative from a major healthcare union called the current moment a breaking point driven by extreme concentration of power among large healthcare corporations.
Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (D-MI), who also participated, pointed to the expiration of cost-saving tax credits and recent Medicaid cuts as factors that have made an already difficult situation considerably worse.
For Ansari, the numbers tell a story that demands urgent action. Insurance premiums are climbing, millions have already lost coverage, and more are expected to follow.
Furthermore, she pointed to Medicare for All as a long-term solution worth serious consideration, and made clear that the Progressive Caucus has both the policy vision and the energy to pursue meaningful reform.
"Medicare and Medicaid need protections and reinforcement now more than ever," Ansari said. "The health of our nation cannot continue to be at the whims of corporations."
